Introduction

The C++ Standard Template Library STL as part of the C++
Standard Library provides a framework for processing algorithms on
different kind of containers. However, ordinary arrays don't
provide the interface of STL containers (although, they provide
the iterator interface of STL containers).

As replacement for ordinary arrays, the STL provides class
std::vector. However,
std::vector<> provides
the semantics of dynamic arrays. Thus, it manages data to be able
to change the number of elements. This results in some overhead in
case only arrays with static size are needed.

In his book, Generic Programming and the
STL, Matthew H. Austern introduces a useful wrapper
class for ordinary arrays with static size, called
block. It is safer and has no worse performance than
ordinary arrays. In The C++ Programming
Language, 3rd edition, Bjarne Stroustrup introduces a
similar class, called c_array, which I (Nicolai Josuttis) present
slightly modified in my book The C++ Standard Library -
A Tutorial and Reference, called
carray. This is the essence of these approaches
spiced with many feedback from boost.

After considering different names, we decided to name this
class simply array.

Update: std::array is (as of C++11) part of the C++ standard.
The differences between boost::array and std::array are minimal.
If you are using C++11, you should consider using std::array instead of boost::array.

Class array fulfills most
but not all of the requirements of "reversible containers" (see
Section 23.1, [lib.container.requirements] of the C++
Standard). The reasons array is not an reversible STL container is
because: